Star Wars' 5 Most Underrated Droids, Ranked

The galaxy of "Star Wars" is full of countless characters, each with their own story. So why do fans keep gravitating back to the same ones? This is doubly true for droids, which are robots literally mass produced in factories that often develop quirks that go beyond just mere programming. Not that you'd realize it since droids like C-3P0 steal the spotlight. A droid can be underrated for any number of reasons. Some of these robots play a pivotal role in the story but have so little screentime they're overshadowed by other droids of admittedly equal-or-superior importance (looking at you, R2-D2).

Other droids started existence as little more than set dressing but received exciting expanded stories you can only find in the aptly named expanded universe of "Star Wars" media. And then there are the rare droids that were created during the height of "Star Wars" fever but were ripped from official canon and have been all but forgotten in the modern era of "Star Wars." Not that there's anything to complain too much about contemporary "Star Wars" media; upcoming projects such as more "Mando-verse" material look exciting. But there are some droids from the different corners of "Star Wars" that deserve more attention than they get.

Nobot is a silver protocol droid — the same model as C-3PO — that shows up briefly in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" and returns in "LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga." You first encounter Nobot by watching it run into a house in Mos Espa. Your first instinct will be to follow Nobot, but doing so is a bit of a mistake since after you enter the derelict house, Nobot will just stand there (menacingly), scamper into another room, and disappear like a ghost. That's all creepy enough as it is, even for a kid's game, but it gets darker.

According to the in-game description and some de-canonized lore, Nobot is known to aimlessly wander the streets of Mos Espa and even the surrounding sand dunes. Nobody knows why Nobot is there, but everyone feels something off about it. And no matter how many times Jawas strip Nobot for parts, it always returns to Mos Espa completely whole. Physically, anyway. According to Mos Espa marketplace rumors, Nobot was the only witness to a particularly grisly murder that killed a woman and her unborn baby, and anyone who got a hand on the droid's communications module would hear a playback of the murder, specifically the victim's ghastly screams.

Depending on who you ask in Mos Espa, Nobot is either the murderer or is now host to malevolent spirits. Nobot is, in effect, a walking ghost story. Its canonicity is questionable, but it demonstrates how different genres of story can easily fit into "Star Wars." There's no need for a found footage horror movie starring Nobot, but fans likely wouldn't say no to a series about urban legends from different "Star Wars" planets.

AP-5 is another protocol droid, but unlike C-3PO and Nobot, it's an RA-7 model. Its face is more insectoid than humanoid. RA-7 started off as a ship navigator, but after the Empire got its hands on him, he was relegated to inventory management. His pre-programmed pride made him think the job was beneath him, but this same pride made him carry out tasks dutifully and without complaint. However, he always sounds grumpy, and it wouldn't be surprising if AP-5's portrayal in "Star Wars: Rebels" was based on Alan Rickman's role as Marvin the Android in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

While any reference to Douglas Adams' magnum opus is respectable, AP-5 is more than just a shuffling shrine to pessimism and comic relief. He primarily appears in "Star Wars: Rebels," where he helps the Rebels set up bases (his logistics skills come in handy). He even bumbles his way through defending some of these locations. One threat comes in the form of another reference that will tickle fans of Ralph McQuarrie (the artist who conceptualized iconic devices such as the lightsaber).

In one episode, AP-5 helps fend off an Imperial spy robot disguised as a seemingly harmless protocol droid with more than a passing resemblance to McQuarrie's original idea for C-3PO. While AP-5 eventually faded into the background, he repeatedly demonstrated that he was the C-3PO to the R2-D2 of C1-10P (Chopper, the show's resident astromech droid).

While many droids in "Star Wars" are the product of their programming, some develop quirks that go beyond simple code. EV-9D9 is the cold, unfeeling face of this reality. Audiences were initially introduced to this droid in the pits of Jabba's palace in "The Return of the Jedi," where she oversaw the torture of numerous droids. She appears for less than a minute, but it is enough to send chills down viewers' spines. However, she is more than just a demented droid that helps sell the depravity of Jabba the Hutt; she actually has quite the storied history.

According to several bits of expanded universe material, EV-9D9 was once a normal EV-model supervisor droid. She worked on a moisture farm, but a fault in her code made her develop a sadistic streak towards other droids. This was a widespread issue among EV robots, and while many EVs were fixed, EV-9D9 found employment under Jabba without the personality patch. A story in the book From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi reveals that a droid's memories can override its programming, and EV-9D9 eventually overcomes her need to torture droids and finds a new purpose tending a cantina in Mos Eisley.

EV-9D9 is a case study in what sentience truly means when literally everything about you can be erased with just a few lines of code. Perhaps there is merit to experiments where scientists make AIs suffer. From an existential point of view, at least.

While characters like Luke Skywalker are written to eventually succeed after intense struggles, droids such as R5-D4 only exist to suffer. But without R5-D4, there would be no Luke Skywalker as we know him. R5-D4 was one of the droids that the Jawas tried selling to Luke and the Lars family. While Luke and his Uncle Owen purchased C-3PO and R5-D4, as luck would have it, the latter blew a motivator, which gave C-3PO the opportunity to suggest purchasing R2-D2 as a replacement. R5-D4 was barely on screen for a minute, but its stroke of cosmic bad luck (which may or may not have been influenced by the Force) changed the course of history in the "Star Wars" galaxy.

R5-D4 was eventually fixed up (kind of) and purchased by Peli Motto, the hangar manager who sold Din Djarin an old Naboo N-1 Starfighter. It's no Millennium Falcon (one of the most iconic sci-fi vehicles of all time), but it's still recognizable. However, R5-D4's experiences left the droid a bit of a neurotic mess, as liable to shake itself to pieces from fear as it was to just fall apart due to shoddy repair jobs.

Still, after Din Djarin purchased R5-D4 ( thus starting to overcome his own prejudices against droids), the astromech came out of its shell and became a more competent, capable droid. While R5-D4 is no R2-D2 and still prone to caution bordering on cowardice, it has undergone an entire character arc without the need for expanded universe material, which is more than can be said for most droids in the franchise.

If any droid deserves more popularity than R2-D2 and C-3PO, it's HK-47. This character hails from one of the best "Star Wars" games of all time: "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic." He starts the game in a shop, advertised as a protocol droid, but it quickly becomes obvious that "HK" stands for "Hunter-Killer." More importantly, he demonstrates he is critical to the plot and steals the show with his personality. HK-47 is primarily known for his dark, sociopathic behavior. He believes all organic life is beneath him, refering to almost everyone as a "meatbag", and relishes killing.

However, he has his own philosophy on the matter, which is probably the only thing preventing him from killing everyone he meets. Every second he doesn't spend killing is spent calculating the best ways to kill – ask HK-47 how to kill Jedi, and he could go on for hours. And we can't forget about his unique vocal tic, prefacing every sentence with a conditional word that describes its intent. BioWare recycled this concept for the Elcor in the "Mass Effect" series.

Unfortunately, HK-47 was one of the victims of the Disney-era "Star Wars" canon reset. His existence has been shot out the airlock, all but forgotten. Gamers were hopeful HK-47 would steal the spotlight yet again when rumors of a "Star Wars: KOTOR" remake started spreading, but according to Bloomberg, that title has been "delayed indefinitely." However, if you can stand trudging through OG Xbox graphics, you can play the original "Star Wars: KOTOR" (and many other titles) on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S via backwards compatibility.